Rogers Cable customers upset about new Quickstart menu

Rogers Cable last week began the roll-out of its Quickstart menu to Digital Cable customers in Ontario.

The new menu, which Digital Home first told our readers about in November, is now spooling to select Rogers digital cables north and east of Toronto.

Provided the company does not encounter any implementation issues, customers in Toronto should see the new menuing system in coming weeks.

Early feedback from Digital Home readers using the Quickstart menu has been extremely negative. Readers complain that the new menu is more style than substance. Subscribers tell Digital Home, they would preferred that rather than adding a pretty new (see screenshots below) digital cable menu, Rogers should have invested in redesigning and improving its tired 2004 era Interactive program guide (IPG) with its 4:3 aspect ratio.

While a few readers have offered faint praise by saying the Quickstart menu was “not a bad start” and “I kind of like the feature”, the following is a sample of feedback Digital Home has received from our readers:

It’s utterly useless, and causes an extra click to get to the guide itself (which is nothing to brag about in the first place). – alandh

seems more of a downgrade to me. – shieze

The more I use this the more I am annoyed. – Eug

Is there any way to get rid of this “Quick Start” Garbage!!!! I’m already paying Rogers, I don’t need to be bombarded with Rogers advertising every time I want the program guide!
Plus having to press guide twice to get into the guide is not fun. Bring back the old way – realtycoon

it sucks i hate it. – actng

What a useless feature. Seems the marketing types had an idea that this might make you more likely to find/buy their On Demand offerings. All it means to me is an extra click to get to the IPG, which has not changed. – frankied

I absolutely despise this feature -dcomp11

The quick start menu is horrible. I wish there was a way to disable it. – craiger

Comments

Ya that’s right Zac only one more button to press…. only two more dollars added to my bill for local television….only have to wait one more hour in the emergency room……. only have to pay 8% more for everything …. you should change your name to Ben, Ben Dover……..

I really don’t see the point. It’s like it’s adding a Rogers advertising component to the guide. The QuickStart chooses which sports or news channels I can preview, it adds an extra step to get to the guide or to the on-demand channels. If it could be customized with my channel selections it would be more useful. As it is, there is simply no reason to use it–it just means I have to hit “Guide” twice to get to where I need to go.